666 chip? Why a Texas student thinks her school ID is the “Mark of the Beast”

The theology behind a battle over RFID tags.

By now, you've probably heard the story: exemplary student Andrea Hernandez has decided to fight her San Antonio high school's plan to outfit every student with an RFID-equipped badge in order to better take attendance and track students while on school property. (Radio frequency identification tags are short-range tracking tags that can be scanned by local readers, though they don't enable any sort of GPS-style location tracking of a student's movements around town, at home, etc.) Hernandez objects to the plan, which the district instituted in order to better recover its daily per-pupil funding from the state of Texas, on the grounds that it was a terrific invasion of her privacy—and of her religious liberty.

How can a plastic badge with a tiny built-in microchip violate religious liberty? The Rutherford Institute, which has taken the Hernandez case and filed a lawsuit (PDF) over it in Bexar County, Texas, puts it this way:

Plaintiff and her father object to the requirement that Plaintiff wear the Smart ID badge on the basis of Scriptures found in the book of Revelation. According to these Scriptures, an individual's acceptance of a certain code, identified with his or her person, as a pass conferring certain privileges from a secular ruling authority, is a form of idolatry or submission to a false god.

The hugely broad definition offered here would seem to sweep up many things, including my children's annual city pool passes, but what's actually being discussed is something more specific: the Mark of the Beast.

The hundreds of news stories on the controversy have focused largely on the privacy element, though some have repeated the Mark of the Beast claims without much in the way of explanation. Many Ars readers, encountering the story for the first time, might well have shared some of the privacy concerns expressed by Hernandez, but come up short in understanding the reason for her objection. What is this mark, and why has it been so tied to certain specific forms of technology? Why do RFID tags and bar codes, in particular, arouse such concerns? And did "John the Revelator" really record long-ago prophecies about contactless payment solutions and geolocation?

Good questions.

A long and very strange trip

A great aunt of mine (Nate) once sent my entire family on a two-week tour of Europe's greatest hits. Those who have been on such tours will recognize the type: expensive international hotels in city centers at night, lengthy bus trips down Europe's finest stretches of tarmac during the day, all in order to make it from London to Rome and back to Paris within 14 days. The bus portions of the trip were not specially remarkable for anything other than epic card games—except for the moment when we pulled out of Brussels one morning on our way to points further east.

The Mark of the Beast—or death!

Our tour guide pointed to a set of European Union buildings in the distance; just behind me, an older man turned to his wife and announced that these were the buildings in which an infamous computer called the BEAST resided, ready and waiting to be put to the use of the Antichrist after he had turned the EU into the dictatorship that would eventually bring us all to the apocalypse and thus to the utter end of the world. This computer would apparently be responsible for tracking us all and our payments, and it would freeze the true believers out of the global commerce stream. His wife did not appear to think this was an unusual thing to say, and she continued to film the roadside scenery with her video camera.

And it was not actually such an unusual thing to say if you came of age within American evangelical and fundamentalist circles during the 20th century—most particularly the '70s and '80s. These were true golden years of apocalyptic, Mark of the Beast, Antichrist-driven thinking. Famous nonfiction books like The Late Great Planet Earth translated the fascinating apocalyptic imagery of the Bible into blueprints for impending doom, matching cryptic ancient words to concrete contemporary events. In this view, the world was likely to end soon-ish—quite possibly within 20-50 years—at which point the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would bring about the creation of a new, remade world for humanity. Before that happened, though, there would be suffering, as the power of the Antichrist waxed and the power of Christians in the world waned (most having been raptured before the final "Great Tribulation" began).

This set the background for a thousand Christian youth group meetings throughout the 1980s, in which kids watched films like 1972's A Thief in the Night or 1978's Distant Thunder, the latter perhaps the most classic late-'70s apocalypse flick. Short version of Thunder: everyone left after the rapture eventually gets rounded up if they don't take a special mark on their foreheads. Those who refuse the mark are ushered into a back room, after which many come out screaming and accept the dotted pattern on their skin. What's in the horrible room that can shake the new faith of those "left behind" after the rapture? SPOILER ALERT: it's a guillotine. (Skip to the 6:50 mark in the clip below to get the flavor.) Those who take the Mark of the Beast are spared, of course—though their souls are doomed. You can still buy the film on DVD from Amazon (sold by "armageddonbooks," naturally) for $26.95.

With all of the attention some Christians have given the Mark of the Beast throughout the centuries, the phrase appears only once in the Bible, as part of the last book of the Christian New Testament, the Revelation of John. While apocalyptic passages exist in books of the Hebrew Bible like Daniel and Ezekiel, Revelation is the single book where the genre predominates.

Apocalyptic literature is defined by biblical scholar John J. Collins as "a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural world."

This type of literature most often appeared when the faith community was under some sort of duress, whether it involved the remnant of Israel living in Babylonian captivity (as was the case with Daniel) or the early Christian church being persecuted by the Roman Empire (as was the case in the late first century when Revelation was written). The key message: live faithfully even under the thumb of your enemies—not necessarily because the Lord will return to bust open a giant can of Smite Thee on them some day, but because God's justice will eventually prevail and the good guys will win in the end.

Being apocalyptic in nature, one of Revelation's concerns is to reveal "the truth about unseen present realities… and unknown future realties, such as judgment and salvation," as Michael J. Gorman, author of Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb Into the New Creation, puts it. Likely written around 95 CE, much of the book is devoted to fantastic images: a scroll with seven seals, seven trumpets that sound, a final battle on the plain of Megiddo ("Armageddon"), and—most germane to our purposes—one dragon and a pair of beasts.

Two beasts, one mark

The dragon shows up in chapter 12 and is identified as Satan (literally "the adversary," a figure who opposes the followers of God). Shortly after the dragon's dramatic appearance, a beast arises from the sea. It has seven heads and 10 horns and is given power and authority by the dragon so that humankind will worship it. (The first beast is often identified as the Antichrist, although the term does not appear in Revelation.)

After the first beast wages war upon the faithful, a second beast appears on the scene, this one having two horns like a lamb and emerging out of the earth to promote the worship of the first beast. Think of him as the first beast's more charming PR flack.

Many biblical scholars see the dragon and two beasts of Revelation 13 as an unholy parody of the Christian trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), but for our purposes, we're interested only in the second beast, the one who has the bright idea of marking people.

Also it [the second beast] causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred sixty-six.

Revelation 13:15-18 (New Revised Standard Version)

It’s this section that has caused no small part of consternation for some fundamentalist and evangelical Christians over the past few decades. Those preoccupied with divining the hidden secrets of Revelation and Christian eschatology—the study of the end times—generally adhere to an interpretative scheme described as "premillennialist." They attempt to map the fantastic visions and imagery in Revelation to specific present and future events. We’re not going to go into detail into Christian eschatology—though we did offer a high-level overview of the concepts in our 2006 review of Left Behind: Eternal Forces.

That approach to Revelation and to the world can see technological advances in particular as something to be feared, especially because the Mark of the Beast sounds more than a bit like electronic tracking and payment systems of today. Implanted NFC ID/payment chips? RFID tags? Bar code tattoos? It's all technically possible.

While in many ways I'm in favor of schools keeping better track of their students (sorry, but if I'm sending my kid to a public school I do want them to know where she is... they're still children, and given that many parents don't have other schooling options within reach and are therefor legally required to send their children to public school, there is in my opinion a definite mandate for the school to provide adequate monitoring for the parents, short of emancipation), an RFID badge seems questionable if they have their students' welfare primarily in mind. It's too easy to just pass one to a friend to take in to cover for truancy.

However, if always trying to appear as if their attendance numbers are high, seemingly in a way that substantiates those numbers for high reimbursement (possibly higher than actual attendance), it makes much more sense.

It's hard to discern how much of it is the latter or how much is just poor logistical thinking, potentially combined with a sweetheart or crony deal on the badges, chips, and underlying systems.

Thanks for a great read on the mark of the beast angle, some of the more focused academic research (the reasoning relating to gematria) is interesting

Throughout the ages, different candidates for the identity of the Antichrist, or the first beast, have been offered up. They have ranged from various Popes (and the Papacy itself) to historical figures like Peter the Great, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin—even John F. Kennedy.

Interesting read. I am fascinated by the how Christian phenomenon at the time of the rise of the Christians. The whole eastern influences and heaven and hell incorporation in the Jewish faith. The many splits in the Jewish faith at the time when obviously the God they believed in wasn't going to help them conquer everyone by faith alone. As show over and over again against the rebellions of righteous Jews against the steel of Roman rule. The rise of apocalypse in the religion like the isolation and strict Jewish Essenes.

I'm coming to conclusion that christ wasn't a person. The sayings of Jesus, and there were persons who were called the brothers of Jesus. When taking the gospels it makes sense when Mark and Mathew are the same slightly modified to tell stories and lessons from the sayings of Jesus. The sense of crushing angst from belief to reality and the questions of why.

It's fascinating anyways how people respond and reconcile their beliefs and reality.

Good article. There's another interpretation that besides Nero and the Roman Empire, Revelation also is discussing the split in early Christianity over accepting gentiles and not requiring them to fully follow Mosaic law. Though the New Testament in general is on the pro side of that argument, Revelation is on the anti side.

I'm not going to say that issue was completely settled by the time Revelation was written, but a lot of that stuff was hashed out in the Pauline epistles a good 4 decades previous. if the relationship between the law and gentiles is a concern, it's a pretty minor one. The biggest theme, especially in the first three chapters (which consists of seven letters written to seven churches in Asia Minor), is the relation of Christians (be they of Jewish or gentile origin) to the culture. For instance, the church at Pergamum was warned about eating food sacrificed to idols or other gods. So it's more a Christians vs. culture mindset than a Jews vs. gentiles issue.

Sort of. You can use a religious exemption to opt out of social security and obamacare. I suspect rather few people will be willing to go whole hog into a religious community of the type that can get the exemption. The government is totally tolerant of people who want to live like 1st century hermits. They're just not such big fans of those who pick and choose when they're ultra-religious.

I really appreciated the attempt to serious explore and explain their point of view, particularly the objectivity. Growing up in the South and going to private religious schools my whole life (Catholic at least, so not as bad) it's still boggling my mind how many people accept these ideas with no thought.

I clearly remember being a child and saying things like "but this doesn't make any sense" and asking "why." To this day when I see people I grew up with, I see the indoctrination. They won't let go of the major stuff, and some will buy into stuff like this without a thought or question. I'm not saying there is no god. It's just the insane dichotomy of having such a strong reverence for the Christian mythology but a severe lack of knowledge on it. The Easter-Sunday Christians just lap it up that one hour of the year or the ignore it and keep on with tradition.

I'm kinda ranting here, but if you aren't living and dealing with these ideas on a regular basis then you really have no idea what it's like. There are the few who do believe in such things, and then a large number of passive people who legitimize the minority's voice because they don't even pay attention to what they claim to believe in.

I'm still confused about how an RFID badge is a mark or coin on the right hand or forehead.

They're probably some of the people who will demand you acccept a literal interpretation of the Bbible on issues they feel strongly about, but when you point that out they will say how those were only listed as examples or something and that we should be more flexible in our interpretation:)

I'm quite happy being agnostic. If the Rapture is gonna happen, please go ahead and get rid of all the Bible thumpers? kthxGod.

As a United Methodist pastor with a more historical/metaphorical perspective on scripture, I appreciate Nate and Eric's analysis on the Mark of the Beast from Revelation. I, personally, am in agreement with their conclusion. I believe and work on a daily basis within the framework that the Bible was written in a specific time and place with a cultural context that requires some work on our part to understand and fully appreciate in our modern day and age. Yes, I believe the Bible to be true, with many stories we can learn from both good and bad, but I don't believe it to be literal. A literal reading causes lawsuits like this, which in the end is not the point of Revelation or other apocalyptic literature.

I run into individuals who frequently have questions on apocalyptic literature worried that the end times are upon us and specific events like this are a sign of that coming. What this does in the end is cause a great deal of anxiety and fear. It frustrates me a great deal that so many fundamentalist and premillenialists have distorted a text that is suppose to be a message of hope and instead induced that fear and anxiety. Oy, I think I'll have another cup of coffee before going outside today.

Sorry, I can't just up arrow this. Being rather non-religious I honestly can't say I've seen this angle from your particular viewpoint personally. Thanks. I appreciate and sincerely thank you for this well reasoned and insightful post.

WTF America... How on earth did the US become a technological powerhouse with folks who believe such nonsense.

I am generally opposed to such things normally, but I wonder if some people should not be allowed to procreate.

We have a congressman on the science committee who won't hazard a guess on the age of the earth because theologians don't agree. We really are doomed if we can't get rid of all this fairy tale nonsense. It is time to move forward.

In my experience, it is the smallest of minorities of Christians who have actually read the bible in its entirety. The vast, vast majority receive their scripture in short segments, hand-in-hand with their pastor's interpretation every Sunday. Most Christians have read a few chapters on their own (The Pentateuch, 4 Canonical Gospels, rarely much else, often less). By and large the problem is that people like this *aren't* reading their own holy book; they're having someone with an agenda tell them what their holy book says. If more Christians read the bible on their own, I'd like to believe that we'd have more Christians living Christ-like. Conversely, some think it'd make more Atheists:

"Take some time and put the Bible on your summer reading list. Try and stick with it cover to cover. Not because it teaches history; we've shown you it doesn't. Read it because you'll see for yourself what the Bible is all about. It sure isn't great literature. If it were published as fiction, no reviewer would give it a passing grade. There are some vivid scenes and some quotable phrases, but there's no plot, no structure, there's a tremendous amount of filler, and the characters are painfully one-dimensional. Whatever you do, don't read the Bible for a moral code: it advocates prejudice, cruelty, superstition, and murder. Read it because: we need more atheists — and nothin' will get you there faster than readin' the damn Bible." - Penn Jillette

Revelation 13:15-18 (New Revised Standard Version)It’s this section that has caused no small part of consternation for some fundamentalist and evangelical Christians over the past few decades.

I don't think that's the section that causes such consternation.

You really should have included a quote from Rev 14.

Quote:

9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” 12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

(emphasis added)

That, combined with your quote from Rev 13 is probably what causes such concern.

According to these Scriptures, an individual's acceptance of a certain code, identified with his or her person, as a pass conferring certain privileges from a secular ruling authority, is a form of idolatry or submission to a false god.

Ok, so, by that statement alone, that would rule out any online account of any sort, credit cards, drivers licences, taxes, any form of financial account, among other things.If they are going to use this kind of justification, they should be forced to abide by it in all facets of their life.

I'm still confused about how an RFID badge is a mark or coin on the right hand or forehead.

They're probably some of the people who will demand you acccept a literal interpretation of the Bbible on issues they feel strongly about, but when you point that out they will say how those were only listed as examples or something and that we should be more flexible in our interpretation:)

Nah, it's just the slippery slope argument. Once the technology is accepted it's a short step to implants.

Religious issues aside, this school is simply trying to maximize the amount of money they get from the state. With school budgets getting cut left and right, they have to try anything they can to get more money, and since state funding (or some percentage of) is tied directly to student attendance, this is a logical step. And before you say that a kid can give their badge to another kid, the school won't care, because that gives them more money. It's not about making sure the kid is in the classroom. It's about getting money for every kid that's on campus, no matter where they are on campus. With a decent understanding of RFID and the inherent limitations, I'm all for this kind of tracking if it means the school will be better funded.

What i wonder is if the school already has some kind of student ID badge system in place. Most schools already print out student badges and require students to have them at all times while on campus, so I don't see how is this any different.

As a United Methodist pastor with a more historical/metaphorical perspective on scripture, I appreciate Nate and Eric's analysis on the Mark of the Beast from Revelation. I, personally, am in agreement with their conclusion. I believe and work on a daily basis within the framework that the Bible was written in a specific time and place with a cultural context that requires some work on our part to understand and fully appreciate in our modern day and age. Yes, I believe the Bible to be true, with many stories we can learn from both good and bad, but I don't believe it to be literal. A literal reading causes lawsuits like this, which in the end is not the point of Revelation or other apocalyptic literature.

I'm not sure what your interpretation of the bible brings to the discussion, short of chiming in that the people objecting to this are crazy and ignorant.

And that's the problem with your post this article: the underlying theme that if your beliefs are crazy or ignorant, they aren't proper religion that deserve protection. That thinking, in turn, is the result of modern liberalism's obsession with being clever and hip and the concomitant need to disparage people that liberals disagree with.

Even if their exegesis is completely wrong (by whatever standard) and mixed up with modern popular culture, that's what they believe. Or are you claiming religious freedom is conditional on it being a sufficiently correct exegesis of a text that is from a sufficiently far away place and thousands of years old?

If you're not claiming that, what's the point of any of this religious analysis?

WTF America... How on earth did the US become a technological powerhouse with folks who believe such nonsense.

I am generally opposed to such things normally, but I wonder if some people should not be allowed to procreate.

Well if you look at the general history of America and the popularity of religion you can see certain correlations between the number of faithful and major advancements. In the 20th century, America kicked serious ass until the evangelical movement started to get into the swing of things. Ironic that technology has greatly aided them in spreading their messages.

In my experience, it is the smallest of minorities of Christians who have actually read the bible in its entirety. The vast, vast majority receive their scripture in short segments, hand-in-hand with their pastor's interpretation every Sunday. Most Christians have read a few chapters on their own (The Pentateuch, 4 Canonical Gospels, rarely much else, often less). By and large the problem is that people like this *aren't* reading their own holy book; they're having someone with an agenda tell them what their holy book says. If more Christians read the bible on their own, I'd like to believe that we'd have more Christians living Christ-like. Conversely, some think it'd make more Atheists:

"Take some time and put the Bible on your summer reading list. Try and stick with it cover to cover. Not because it teaches history; we've shown you it doesn't. Read it because you'll see for yourself what the Bible is all about. It sure isn't great literature. If it were published as fiction, no reviewer would give it a passing grade. There are some vivid scenes and some quotable phrases, but there's no plot, no structure, there's a tremendous amount of filler, and the characters are painfully one-dimensional. Whatever you do, don't read the Bible for a moral code: it advocates prejudice, cruelty, superstition, and murder. Read it because: we need more atheists — and nothin' will get you there faster than readin' the damn Bible." - Penn Jillette

It is important to read it on your own and with an open mind. Reading it in a bible study group with someone guiding your interpretation is not helpful. It is also important to remember that even though the New Testament reads like first hand accounts, it was written hundreds of years after Christ lived.

Most of the Christians I ask to read the bible give me blank stares and then throw out some well worn bible quote. The best thing that comes from a thorough reading of the bible is the realization that there is nothing in there you should be allowing to control your life.

I encourage people to hit all the big ones and then investigate the ancient religions and realize everything in both testaments is just a retelling of stories from 1000s of years earlier.

Good article. There's another interpretation that besides Nero and the Roman Empire, Revelation also is discussing the split in early Christianity over accepting gentiles and not requiring them to fully follow Mosaic law. Though the New Testament in general is on the pro side of that argument, Revelation is on the anti side.

I'm not going to say that issue was completely settled by the time Revelation was written, but a lot of that stuff was hashed out in the Pauline epistles a good 4 decades previous. if the relationship between the law and gentiles is a concern, it's a pretty minor one. The biggest theme, especially in the first three chapters (which consists of seven letters written to seven churches in Asia Minor), is the relation of Christians (be they of Jewish or gentile origin) to the culture. For instance, the church at Pergamum was warned about eating food sacrificed to idols or other gods. So it's more a Christians vs. culture mindset than a Jews vs. gentiles issue.

This is the theory of Elaine Pagels.

Quote:

What’s more original to Pagels’s book is the view that Revelation is essentially an anti-Christian polemic. That is, it was written by an expatriate follower of Jesus who wanted the movement to remain within an entirely Jewish context, as opposed to the “Christianity” just then being invented by St. Paul, who welcomed uncircumcised and trayf-eating Gentiles into the sect. At a time when no one quite called himself “Christian,” in the modern sense, John is prophesying what would happen if people did. That’s the forward-looking worry in the book. “In retrospect, we can see that John stood on the cusp of an enormous change—one that eventually would transform the entire movement from a Jewish messianic sect into ‘Christianity,’ a new religion flooded with Gentiles,” Pagels writes. “But since this had not yet happened—not, at least, among the groups John addressed in Asia Minor—he took his stand as a Jewish prophet charged to keep God’s people holy, unpolluted by Roman culture. So, John says, Jesus twice warns his followers in Asia Minor to beware of ‘blasphemers’ among them, ‘who say they are Jews, and are not.’ They are, he says, a ‘synagogue of Satan.’ ” Balaam and Jezebel, named as satanic prophets in Revelation, are, in this view, caricatures of “Pauline” Christians, who blithely violated Jewish food and sexual laws while still claiming to be followers of the good rabbi Yeshua. Jezebel, in particular—the name that John assigns her is that of an infamous Canaanite queen, but she’s seen preaching in the nearby town of Thyatira—suggests the women evangelists who were central to Paul’s version of the movement and anathema to a pious Jew like John. She is the original shiksa goddess. (“When John accuses ‘Balaam’ and ‘Jezebel’ of inducing people to ‘eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication,’ he might have in mind anything from tolerating people who engage in incest to Jews who become sexually involved with Gentiles or, worse, who marry them,” Pagels notes.) The scarlet whores and mad beasts in Revelation are the Gentile followers of Paul—and so, in a neat irony, the spiritual ancestors of today’s Protestant evangelicals.

The rise of apocalypse in the religion like the isolation and strict Jewish Essenes.

In my opinion, Jesus definitely comes from an Essene background in some way. Of course, thinking yourself the Messiah was not a normal thing for Essenes though. Nor was accepting everyone into the fold.